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Update 14 Expansion Official

Release Notes: Update 14: Menace of the Underdark Expansion

Welcome to the Update 14, Menace of the Underdark Expansion Release Notes for Dungeons & Dragons Online! These release notes were posted on Monday, June 25th, 2012.

News & Notes

The shadow of Lolth has cast darkness over the kingdom of Cormyr where heroes struggle to stem the unrelenting tide of the Drow forces. The hopes of the Realms lie with champions from Eberron, whose world has become entangled in Lolth's schemes, bringing them to Faerûn where they will make the final stand against the Queen of the Demonweb!

Of Special Note

Forgotten Realms Campaign

Players can now journey into the Forgotten Realms! Note that in this strange new land, familiar objects may appear differently than you're accustomed to!

The "Campaign System" can now be found in Forgotten Realms content in addition to Korthos Island, to help Eberron immigrants arriving in Forgotten Realms learn where the basics are (particularly in cases where features they know and recognize in Eberron might look slightly different in Faerûn).

Rest and resurrection shrines of Faerûn bear the symbols of Forgotten Realms deities.

The Rest Shrine bears the moon symbol of Selûne

The Resurrection Shrine bears the sun symbol of Amaunator

New Free Quest

Venture Beyond the Rift between worlds as you aid the Gatekeepers of Eberron and take the first steps into another realm in this continuation of the Spinner of Shadows storyline!

Level Cap Increase: Epic Levels

Players can now advance into Epic levels! You may now level your character to level 25.

Character levels 1 - 19 are now known as "Heroic" levels. All levels 20+ are considered "Epic" levels.

A character that reaches Heroic level 20 will automatically begin to accumulate Epic Experience, progressing through Epic character levels 21 through 25.

Epic Experience required to level is identical for all characters, regardless of number of True Reincarnations. If a character's Heroic level drops below 20 (for example, through True Reincarnation), Epic advancement and all benefits related to it are suppressed. When the character reaches Heroic level 20 again, they will be returned.

Epic Advancement provides a variety of benefits:

Characters gain +10 hitpoints at levels 21 - 25.

Characters gain a +1 bonus to all their skills at levels 21 - 25.

Characters gain an ability score increase at level 24.

Character saves increase by +1 at 22nd & 24th level.

Base Attack Bonus (BAB) increase by +1 at levels 21, 23, and 25

Characters may select a new feat at levels 21 & 24. They may select a feat from the existing Heroic feat list, or from the new Epic feats available for Epic level characters.

New Expansion

The Menace of the Underdark Expansion is now available! Featuring a multitude of epic adventures, unprecedented new wilderness areas with challenging objectives, a host of dungeons and more!

Explore deep into the King’s Forest and defend the village of Eveningstar from Lolth’s Drow legions!

Venture down into the Underdark and confront Lolth’s elite followers in the Drow city of Schindylryn!

Journey to Lolth’s home plane and battle demon hordes as you attempt to stop Lolth's scheme!

15 new adventures and 3 Adventure Areas that span the King's Forest, Underdark, and Demonweb.

Introducing Epic Destinies!

Take your character customization to the next level with our new Epic Destinies system! Included with purchase of the Menace of the Underdark Expansion, this Epic level enhancement system brings all new abilities, attacks, and opportunities for glory!

Epic Destinies allow you to obtain new special buffs, boosts, and attacks as you level up in them.

The shortcut to open your Epic Destinies UI is Ctrl-E

Upon reaching level 20, any XP you earn will count towards your character level and your Epic Destinies simultaneously! You may continue to advance to character level 25, while earning XP towards an Epic Destiny at the same time. After reaching character level cap, you may continue to advance Epic Destiny XP, and to level up additional Epic Destinies!

You may only advance the XP of an Epic Destiny so long as you are level 20 or higher.

Only one Epic Destiny may be active at one time, but you may change between the Epic Destiny of your choice by speaking with a Fatespinner! The Fatespinner can be located in the town of Eveningstar and in the Marketplace of Stormreach. Speak with the Fatespinner at any time to switch which Destiny you are currently earning XP towards and utilizing. You may speak with a Fatespinner as often as you want to switch active Destinies. Fatespinners are located in the town of Eveningstar and in the Stormreach Marketplace.

If you have 6 or more levels in a class, your first Epic Destiny can be selected from one closely associated with that class's sphere of influence:

Arcane (Artificers, Bards, Sorcerers, Wizards) may select from:

Draconic Incarnation

Fatesinger

Magister

Divine (Clerics, Favored Souls, Paladins) may select from:

Exalted Angel

Unyielding Sentinel

Legendary Dreadnought

Grandmaster of Flowers

Shadowdancer

Fury of the Wild

Shiradi Champion

Martial (Fighters, Monks, Rogues) may select from:

Primal (Barbarians, Druids, Rangers) may select from:

Players may continue to advance in further Epic Destinies that neighbor their sphere of influence. Use the map view to visualize how near or far other Destinies are to your current one!

You may pay platinum to the Fatespinner to respec an Epic Destiny at any time, though subsequent respecs increase in cost (this cost increase resets after 3 days). You may also purchase a respec in the DDO Store using a Loom of Destiny.

As you progress in Epic character levels, you will earn Action Points that can be spent in the Epic Destiny system to acquire Twists of Fate! Players may select particular aspects of one of their Epic Destinies to retain, regardless of which Epic Destiny they have active!

It is possible to advance every type of Destiny over time, regardless of your starting class. By using Twists of Fate, you may retain your favorite parts of multiple Destinies!

Introducing The Druid

Challenge the Drow of the Underdark as a Druid from the wilds of Eberron! Starting with Menace of the Underdark, DDO’s first shape-shifting class, the Druid, is available as a premium playable class -- and free to all VIPs! Proficient with staves, daggers, clubs, sickles, and more; the Druid is a powerful caster who is able to fill a variety of party roles.

Take the Druidic oath and get closer to nature - Druids must avoid metal armors & shields in order to retain their nature-influenced powers.

Harness animal instincts to transform yourself into one of the Druidic wildshape forms!

Wolf

Bear

Fire Elemental

Water Elemental

Winter Wolf

Dire Bear

Each wild shape has its own specialized set of spells to cast!

Important Information Regarding Druids:

Newly created Druids may not utilize Veteran Status.

You may not convert a high level character into a Druid using +1, +3, or +5 Reincarnations. You may use Lesser / Greater Reincarnation to respec your Druid, as well as True Reincarnation.

Druids are not eligible to receive the benefits of the Stone of Shared Experience; it is not possible to take Druid levels after utilizing a Stone of Experience.

Eveningstar Challenges

Five new Challenges are now available in DDO! Visit the town of Eveningstar and Eveningstar Cavern to check out these new Challenges! Available with purchase of the Menace of the Underdark Expansion, or free for being a VIP!

Help the Dryads to defend their grove from the evil Drow invaders

Fight beside War Wizards and Purple Dragonknights as you work to reclaim a ruined keep

Prove your worth to the denizens of the Underdark in their brutal arena

A new Daily Challenge Token vendor has been added to the town of Eveningstar!

Other Challenge Changes

Daily Challenge tokens have been streamlined. You now receive Universal tokens from the Daily Challenge NPCs in Eberron and Forgotten Realms. These tokens are valid for 1 use on any Challenge in DDO, regardless of Campaign setting or Challenge variant.

The quantity of daily tokens has been adjusted to account for the fact that they are now universal tokens.

When a star objective is achieved, a party wide message occurs rather than only notifying the person who got the star.

Kobold requisitions now only work in their intended challenge. No more Kobolds wandering about the Cannith Enclave.

Questing

The questing panel has been redesigned to provide more clear guidance regarding your questing options.

Non-epic quests are now known as "Heroic" level quests. If a quest has Epic levels available, you can click the "Epic" tab to access them.

Epic quests now offer a range of difficulties, accessible by selecting the "Epic" tab in the Quest Panel.

Epic quests timers have been reduced to 2 minutes.

You can now additionally access party-forming tools from inside the questing panel. Players may now allow their party to be an "open" party where other players may join/leave at will without needing to apply to join the party first. These "public" parties can even be set to have no specified leader.

Public parties are called out in the LFM, and can also be disabled from displaying.

Any Public parties will display the current amount of time the quest has been active by the existing party members to provide better guidance of how far along the quest may be.

Feedback notifying you of your current bravery streaks & eligibility has been improved.

There is now a column in the Adventure Compendium that displays the number of active LFMs for each quest. This column is sortable.

There is a new drop-down menu on the Create Party Panel that allows you to specify a max party size for your group. Once your group hits this size, the LFM is automatically delisted.

Classes

Monk

Specific quest items can now be equipped without causing monks to become uncentered.

Some DDO Store purchased Rod items now do not uncenter monks when held.

Rangers

Rangers are no longer prevented from casting while affected by a Quell's Intercession.

Entangle, Animal Growth, Magic Fang, and Pass Without Trace have been added to the Ranger spell list.

Rangers now receive Precise Shot for free at level 4.

Pale Masters in undead form no longer need to breathe.

Warforged Pale Masters are now immune to rust damage, from sources like Rust Monsters or deconstruct.

Wizard

Crafting

Green Steel Altars are now 50% more forgiving when you change your mind and 98.7% less mysterious!

Green Steel Altars now use barter-style crafting, with searchable and publicly listed recipes.

Green Steel weapons, equipment, and shards can be deconstructed to gain back approximately half of the ingredients required to make an item of the same tier.

Deconstruction of Green Steel requires Yellow Dopant, a rare drop from the Shroud end chest. Higher difficulty levels provide more chests and better chance to get Yellow Dopant.

Deconstructing a cleaned Greensteel item using Yellow Dopant returns an Essence of Cleansing.

Deconstructing a dual-shard allows you the choice of extra ingredients. For cleansed items with a dual shard, it is possible to instead select an Essence of Cleansing.

Incredible Potential can be restored to Tower of Despair Rings, wiping the ring clean so you can imbue it with different effects. This use of Yellow Dopant does not return any ingredients.

Various changes have been made to the potential of Cannith Crafting shards, so the shards now match the potential of effects on randomly-generated loot.

Existing crafted items with these effects will now reflect the minimum level of their randomly-generated treasure counter parts.

Note that some effects that previously only existed in the Cannith Crafting system may now appear on randomly generated treasure!

"Flexible" shards have been added to crafting recipes! These shards have loosened equipment slot restrictions when compared to their counterpart recipes and as such allow you to put effects on many more equipment slots than were previously available, though at a higher minimum level and greater ingredient costs. For example, a Dexterity +4 shard can only go on gloves, rings, and boots. A flexible Dexterity +4 shard allows you to apply the effect to any equipment slot except weapons and shields. These new recipes go from level 101 to 150 on the Crafting Device for Bound Shards, and will be available in a future update as Unbound shards.

Creature Companions

Creature Companion Cosmetic items now work with all Companions.

Corrected descriptions on several Companions and their associated tricks.

Combat

Armor Class curves have been adjusted and rebalanced to better scale with high level and Epic level content, and to be more meaningful at lower levels:

The amount of Armor Class provided by various items, character abilities, spells, etc has been updated to be in line with these changes. Monsters also received adjustments to their armor classes to be in line with the changes.

Dodge has been modified to provide a % based mitigation instead of single points of Armor Class.

Many feats and items will now give dodge as a percentage.

The word “dodge” will appear over head when a character has successfully mitigated damage using dodge.

This new dodge percentage bonus is capped by the max armor class bonus on your armor. This cap only applies to passive bonuses, and temporary buffs may break your cap on a case by case basis.

There are now six types of armor:

Leather (Light Armor)

Chainmail (Light Armor)

Scalemail (Medium Armor)

Breastplate (Medium Armor)

Half Plate (Heavy Armor)

Full Plate (Heavy Armor

Armor values have been adjusted to better balance out each type of armor. Armor and max dex bonus values are higher on higher level equipment. These appear in random treasure. Existing named items of this type have been retroactively upgraded. That includes ones you already own.

A new form of damage mitigation has been added to the game: Physical Resistance. It provides a % resistance against blunt, slash, and piecing damages, but is granted through multiple sources (items, feats, enhancements) and stacks with itself. Character sheets will now show the Physical Resistance Rating of the player in the same area as other types of resistances.

Character sheets now include a new tool tip under the armor class section called “defense chance at level”. This is the chance of a monster missing you at your given level calculated off your current AC. This calculation ONLY uses armor class.

You win DDO! You've leveled to 20 in every class, and for your effort you can take this feat to get a +2 bonus to all skills and ability scores. When more classes are added, this feat will deactivate and you will need to gain those past lives before this benefit reactivates.

Precise Shot

Your missile attacks may pass through other characters and monsters to strike their target. This feat also grants you the Offensive Ranged Stance 'Archer's Focus', which lets you deal progressively more damage with ranged attacks while standing still.

Offensive Ranged Stance: If you have been stationary for 5 seconds, you gain Archer's Focus: While attacking opponents with a ranged weapon, you gain a +5% competence bonus to missile damage every 5 seconds, to a maximum of +25%. Moving or using the Manyshot ability removes this effect, and your focus ends if you do not attack an opponent with a ranged weapon for 5 seconds.

Tactical Melee Cleave: Activate this ability to attack one or more enemies in an arc in front of you. This attack deals +1[W] damage.

5 second cooldown.

Tactical Melee Cleave: Activate this ability to attack one or more enemies in a wide arc in front of you. This attack deals +2[W] damage.

5 second cooldown.

Tactical Melee Cleave: Activate this ability to attack all enemies in a 360 degree arc around you. This attack deals +4[W] damage.

5 second cooldown.

Grants you a +1 bonus to your AC and 5 physical resistance when you wield two weapons. (This bonus does not apply when fighting unarmed/with handwraps.)

Defensive Combat Stance: While using Combat Expertise mode, you suffer -5 to your attack rolls but gain +10% feat bonus to Armor Class. Spells have three times their normal cooldown when this mode is active. Combat Expertise dispels and wards against all Rage effects.

Defensive Combat Stance: While using Defensive Fighting mode, you gain a 5% bonus to AC and a -5% penalty to-hit. Casting a spell ends this mode.

Offensive Combat Stance: While using Precision mode, you gain +5% to hit and reduces the target's fortification against your attacks by 25%.

Defensive Combat Stance: While using Resilience mode, you gain a +4 bonus to all saves. Spells have three times their normal cooldown when this mode is active.

Provides a +2 bonus to confirm critical hits and a +2 bonus to critical hit damage (before multipliers are applied).

Grants you a 3% Dodge bonus.

Activate this ability to gain a temporary 25% Dodge bonus and a +4 reflex save bonus. This feat also grants you a 1% passive bonus to Dodge at levels 4, 6, 8, 12, 16, and 20.

No longer has a times-per-rest restriction, instead has a 180 second cooldown.

Activate this barbarian ability to gain a temporary 25% Dodge bonus and +6 reflex save bonus. This feat also grants you a 1% passive bonus to Dodge at levels 4, 6, 8, 12, 16, and 20.

No longer has a times-per-rest restriction, instead has a 120 second cooldown.

Increases the maximum dexterity bonus permitted by armor and tower shields by 2, and adds a +4 bonus to Armor Class while tumbling. You will also gain a 2% Dodge bonus.

You suffer no penalty to your attack roll when moving and attacking. You will also gain a 2% Dodge bonus.

While centered (unarmored, unencumbered, and either unarmed or wielding monk weapons such as the kama, quarterstaff, or shuriken), you get an increase to your attack bonus, and a 2% dodge bonus at monk levels 1, 2, and 4 for a total of 6%. The attack bonus increase starts at 1 (at level 1) and increases by 1 for every four additional monk levels. Some rare items are enchanted as 'Ki Weapons' and can be used with your monk abilities, and certain feats or enhancements can further expand the list of weapons available to your monk.

You are proficient with light armor, and do not suffer armor penalties to your attack rolls when wearing light armor. You also gain 2 + 1/2 of your base attack bonus in physical resistance when wearing light armor.

You are proficient with medium armor, and do not suffer armor penalties to your attack rolls when wearing medium armor. You also gain 4 + 2/3rds of your base attack bonus in physical resistance when wearing medium armor.

You are proficient with heavy armor, and do not suffer armor penalties to your attack rolls when wearing heavy armor. You also gain 6 + your base attack bonus in physical resistance when wearing heavy armor.

You are skilled with the use of a shield, and your physical resistance is increased by 3 when using a buckler or small shield, 5 when using a large shield, or 10 when using a tower shield. You gain 3% double strike while using a shield.

You are exceptionally skilled with the use of a shield, and your physical resistance is increased by 5 when using a buckler or small shield, 10 when using a large shield, or 15 when using a tower shield. ** Your double strike chance while using a shield is increased by 8%.

Activate this bard ability to grant an ally a +4 morale bonus to his or her saves, and a +4% dodge. Requires 18 trained ranks (not total mod) of the Perform skill to use.

Docents you equip provide armor equivalent to Chainmail. This is treated as metallic light armor. You have a 15% arcane spell failure chance, -1 armor check penalty to certain skills, and a +5 maximum dexterity bonus.

Docents you equip provide armor equivalent to Full Plate. This is treated as metallic heavy armor. You have damage reduction 2/adamantine, a 35% arcane spell failure chance, -5 armor check penalty to certain skills, and a +1 maximum dexterity bonus.

The unyielding mountain focuses on endurance and defense. Greater Mountain Stance grants +3 Constitution, a 15% boost to AC, 12 physical resistance, a +55% Insight bonus to melee threat generation, and the critical multiplier of all weapons you use is increased by 1 on rolls of a natural 19 or 20, at the cost of -2 Dexterity and -10% movement speed. While in Greater Mountain Stance, you gain 'Get Hit Effect: Gain 1 ki.'

The unyielding mountain focuses on endurance and defense. Ultimate Mountain Stance grants +4 Constitution, a 20% boost to AC, 15 physical resistance, a +70% Insight bonus to melee threat generation, and the critical multiplier of all weapons you use is increased by 1 on rolls of a natural 19 or 20, at the cost of -2 Dexterity and -10% movement speed. While in Ultimate Mountain Stance, you gain 'Get Hit Effect: Gain 1 ki.'

The eternal ocean focuses on redirection and the supernatural. Lesser Ocean Stance grants +2 Wisdom, +1% dodge, and +2 to all Saving Throws at a cost of -2 Strength.

The eternal ocean focuses on redirection and the supernatural. Lesser Ocean Stance grants +2 Wisdom, +2% dodge, and +3 to all Saving Throws at a cost of -2 Strength.

The eternal ocean focuses on redirection and the supernatural. Lesser Ocean Stance grants +3 Wisdom, +2%, +4 to all Saving Throws, and your passive ki generation when centered is increased by 1, at a cost of -2 Strength.

Activate this ability to receive a +5 Action Boost bonus to Armor Class for 20 seconds.

Activate this ability to receive a +10 Action Boost bonus to Armor Class for 20 seconds.

Activate this ability to receive a +15 Action Boost bonus to Armor Class for 20 seconds.

Activate this ability to receive a +20 Action Boost bonus to Armor Class for 20 seconds.

Tactical Melee Cleave: Expend 10 hit points to activate this ability to attack one or more enemies in an arc in front of you. This attack deals +2[W] damage.

3 second cooldown.

Protecting the weak from the depredations of the strong, you become a paragon of defense. This prestige enhancement grants you 2 additional Turn attempts, additional armor class when blocking with a shield, increases the maximum dexterity bonus allowed by tower shields by 1, and grants the ability to enter a defensive stance or to create a Magic Circle Against Evil effect. When using a shield, you generate 25% additional threat from all sources and gain 10 physical resistance. You may possess only one prestige enhancement line at a time for each class.

Defensive Stance:

You may expend a Paladin armor boost to become a bastion of defense, gaining a +2 Sacred bonus to Strength and Constitution, +10% maximum hit points, a +1 Sacred bonus on all saves, 10 physical resistance, a 25% Sacred bonus to threat generated with your melee attacks, and a 10% bonus to Armor Class from armor and shields. While in this stance you move 10% slower.

Protecting the weak from the depredations of the strong, you continue your training as a paragon of defense. This prestige enhancement grants you an additional Lay on Hands use per rest, and further increases the maximum dexterity bonus allowed by tower shields and heavy armor by an additional 1. When using a shield, you now generate 50% additional threat from all sources and gain 15 physical resistance. You also gain the ability to enter an improved defensive stance or to produce a Mass Shield of Faith effect.

Improved Defensive Stance:

You may expend a Paladin armor boost to become a bastion of defense, gaining a +4 Sacred bonus to Strength and Constitution, +15% maximum hit points, a +2 Sacred bonus on all saves, 15 physical resistance, a 50% Sacred bonus to threat generated with your melee attacks, and a 20% bonus to Armor Class from armor and shields. While in this stance, you move 10% slower.

Protecting the weak from the depredations of the strong, you continue your training as a paragon of defense. This prestige enhancement increases the strength of all of your defensive auras, and further increases the maximum dexterity bonus allowed by tower shields and medium or heavy armor by an additional 1. When using a shield, you now generate 75% additional threat from all sources and gain 20 physical resistance. You also gain the ability to enter a superior defensive stance or to defy your enemies in a glorious stand against evil.

Superior Defensive Stance

You may expend a Paladin armor boost to become a bastion of defense, gaining a +6 Sacred bonus to Strength and Constitution, +20% maximum hit points, a +3 Sacred bonus on all saves, 20 physical resistance, a 75% Sacred bonus to threat generated with your melee attacks and a 40% bonus to Armor Class from armor and shields. While in this stance, you move 10% slower.

While the flesh may be weak, you place your trust in the strength of steel. This prestige enhancement increases your armor class by 1, grants +2 to your intimidate skill, increases your maximum dexterity bonus allowed by shields, and grants additional armor class and damage reduction when blocking with a shield. In addition, when you have a one handed melee weapon and shield equipped, you possess 10 physical resistance and your melee threat generation is increased by 25%. Also, you may expend a use of Fighter action boost to enter a defensive stance. You may possess only one prestige enhancement line at a time for each class.

Defensive Stance

You may expend a Fighter armor boost to become a bastion of defense, gaining a +2 Competence bonus to Strength and Constitution, +10% maximum hit points, a +1 Competence bonus on all saves, 10 physical resistance, and a 10% bonus to Armor Class from armor and shields. You also gain a 25% Competence bonus to threat generated with your melee attacks. While in this stance, you move 10% slower.

Your defensive mastery continues to grow. In addition to the bonuses of Stalwart Defender I, this prestige enhancement increases your armor class by 1, grants +2 to your intimidate skill, increases your maximum dexterity bonus allowed by heavy armor and shields, and grants additional armor class and damage reduction when blocking with a shield. In addition, when you have a one handed melee weapon and shield equipped, your physical resistance is upgraded from 10 to 20, and you now generate 50% additional threat with melee attacks. You may expend a use of Fighter action boost to enter a defensive stance.

Improved Defensive Stance

You may expend a Fighter armor boost to become a bastion of defense, gaining a +4 Competence bonus to Strength and Constitution, +15% maximum hit points, a +2 Competence bonus on all saves, 15 physical resistance, and a 20% bonus to Armor Class from armor and shields. You also gain a 50% Competence bonus to threat generated with your melee attacks. While in this stance, you move 10% slower.

Your defensive mastery is complete. In addition to the bonuses of Stalwart Defender I and II, this prestige enhancement increases your armor class by 1, grants +2 to your intimidate skill, increases your maximum dexterity bonus allowed by medium or heavy armor and shields, and grants additional armor class and damage reduction when blocking with a shield. In addition, when you have a one handed melee weapon and shield equipped, your physical resistance is upgraded from 15 to 20, and you now generate 75% additional threat with melee attacks. You may expend a use of Fighter action boost to to enter a defensive stance.

Superior Defensive Stance

You may expend a Fighter armor boost to become a bastion of defense, gaining a +6 Competence bonus to Strength and Constitution, +20% maximum hit points, a +3 Competence bonus on all saves, 20 physical resistance, and a 40% bonus to Armor Class from armor and shields. You also gain a 75% Competence bonus to threat generated with your melee attacks. While in this stance, you move 10% slower.

Your focus and training improve, granting an additional +1 bonus to Bluff, Concentration, Diplomacy, and Intimidate skills, Combat Feat DC's, and Reflex saves against magical effects, and 1 additional Action Boost per rest. If you possess a Ki bar, you gain 1 additional Ki on criticals and when meditating. You also gain the ability to expend a Fighter attack boost to focus your energy and spirit into a surge of power.

Power Surge

You may expend a Fighter attack boost to focus your energy and spirit, gaining a +8 Psionic bonus to strength for a short period of time. If you possess the ability to generate Ki, you generate an additional 2 Ki on successful attacks during your surge.

Archer’s Focus

Cleave

Great Cleave

Whirlwind Attack

Two Weapon Defense

Combat Expertise

Defensive Fighting

Precision

Resilience

Power Critical

Dodge

Uncanny Dodge

Improved Uncanny Dodge

Mobility

Spring Attack

Flurry of Blows

Light Armor Proficiency

Medium Armor Proficiency

Heavy Armor Proficiency

Shield Mastery

Improved Shield Mastery

Inspire Heroics

Mithral Body

Adamantine Body

Lesser Mountain Stance

Mountain Stance

Greater Mountain Stance

Ultimate Mountain Stance

Lesser Ocean Stance

Ocean Stance

Greater Ocean Stance

(Class) Armor Class Boost I

(Class) Armor Class Boost II

(Class) Armor Class Boost III

(Class) Armor Class Boost IV

Supreme Cleave

Defender of Siberys I

Defender of Siberys II

Defender of Siberys III

Stalwart Defender I

Stalwart Defender II

Stalwart Defender III

Kensei II

Other Combat Changes

Fixed some debuffs improperly interrupting the charging of Runearms.

Corrected an issue where creatures or characters appeared to "slide" while doing some combat animations.

Weapon sets can now be equipped while underwater.

DDO Store

Various fixes to description errors in Hireling contracts

Events

Crystal Cove will now show the right objective amount of 100, not 150.

Text descriptions for the Pirate's Cunning & Stalwart Trinkets have been updated to reflect the amounts they were actually giving.

The tooltip for Pirate's Port now reads correctly.

Kobold Gems no longer take damage.

It is no longer possible to teleport party members above the Bogwater Tavern slide.

Enhancements

Several enhancements that impact combat bonuses were updated with the new Combat changes. Please see the Combat section of these release notes for further details.

Blood Rage properly gives +4 Strength and Constitution during the third stage of rage.

Guilds

Instructions for disbanding your Guild are now clearer.

Fixed a blocked doorway on the Windspyre Sparrow airship.

Hirelings & Class Pets

Hirelings with the spot skill should now properly alert players to traps they see.

Martial Epic Hirelings may now be purchased in the DDO Store

More hirelings have been added to the game to support high level and epic content.

Iron Defenders modules have been converted to "collars". All class pets (artificer dogs, druid wolves, etc), now use "collars" to obtain extra gear-based abilities. Note that currently, only Iron Defenders are capable of utilizing breath weapon collars. All existing modules have been renamed "collars".

The amount of hit points class pets receive has been adjusted to be more appropriate for their level throughout gameplay.

Maloren the hireling has yet again been retrained to cast healing spells.

Benefits UI for pets now displays tooltips properly.

Fixed an issue where some hirelings would go brain dead and try to freeze up the quest instance. Bad hirelings, bad!

Hirelings and pets willl now drop quest items and soulstones in their inventory when dismissed

All invisible Iron Defenders have been rounded up by the pound.

Items

Spell Power

The spell damage amplification system (including bonuses from items and enhancements) now uses a Spell Power rating to determine how much damage you deal with spells. In most cases, each point of Spell Power increases the base damage of your spell by 1%. (For example, casting a spell with 100 Spell Power will result in double damage.) Unlike the old damage amplification effects, Spell Power is not restricted by spell level, and bonuses to Spell Power of different types stack, following standard D&D stacking rules. (An Enhancement bonus and an Alchemical bonus will stack, but only the greater of two Enhancement bonuses will apply.) The bonus damage from Spell Power is not multiplied by metamagics such as Empower Spell or Maximize Spell. Items and enhancements that granted damage amplification to specific damage types will now provide a bonus to Spell Power with spells of that damage type. (For example, an old Combustion V item that used to grant +20% damage to level V or lower Fire spells will now grant a +48 Equipment bonus to Spell Power when casting any Fire spell.) Potency effects grant Spell Power with any spell, as expected, but generally have lower values than specific effects. Sources of Spell Power include:

Feats:

Metamagics such as Empower Spell and Maximize Spell add 75 or 150 Spellpower while active.

Enhancements:

Enhancements such as Flame Manipulation or Pale Master now grant Spell Power to the appropriate spells equal to twice their old percentage values.

Items with old permanent damage amplification effects now grant an Equipment bonus to Spell Power.

Any weapon that has a Spell Power bonus also grants an Implement bonus equal to 3 times the enchantment bonus of the weapon. A +5 weapon will therefore grant a +15 Implement bonus to Spell Power with all spells. Any effect that increases the enchantment bonus of the weapon (such as an Artificer’s Enchant Weapon) will also increase the Implement bonus.

Any item with old temporary damage amplification effects now grant an Alchemical bonus to Spell Power when used (an Inferno item will now stack with a Combustion item).

The Xachosian Eardweller now grants a +25 Psionic bonus to Spell Power with all spells (it now stacks with all other effects instead of temporarily replacing them).

Items:

Other Item Changes

When using a Stone of Experience on another player you must now be partied with that player or it will have no effect.

Roderic's Wand will now apply Augment Summoning buffs to hirelings as well as summoned and charmed monsters.

The Bracelet of Friends and Greater Bracelet of Friends will not work across the two worlds (Xendrik and Forgotten Realms).

Ingredients and Collectibles are now weightless.

Docents can no longer generate with race restrictions, because that would be silly.

Random treasure can now generate up to level 25.

The power of generated treasure at low levels has been increased to more closely match the level of the chest it comes from.

Many new prefix and suffix mutations can now appear. Go forth and discover them!

New rare mutations can appear. These rare mutations can include multiple effects on one prefix or suffix. Go forth and discover them too!

Equipment Icon Borders have been changed:

Randomly generated items now have dark green borders on their icons.

Some rarer random items with more powerful abilities will have a teal border.

Event and Challenge item rewards have a blue border (unless that item is level 20 or higher)

Named items have a blue border.

Raid items have an orange border.

Epic named items have a purple border.

Epic raid items have a red border.

Newly purchased DDO Store Spirit Cakes will now resurrect all nearby hirelings within a radius of the one who consumes the cake.

Corrected the description of Smiting on several named weapons.

Fiery Detonation, Freezing Gale, Acid Torrent, and Electrifying Blast have had their descriptions updated to appropriately reflect their higher saving throws. They have also had their area of effect reduced to a more appropriate size, as they were unintentionally set very large.

The Icy Raiments no longer use the description of the Enlightened Vestments.

The upgrade recipes for Toven's Hammer no longer refer to it as "Tobin's Hammer".

Greater Halfling Bane now properly deals bonus damage.

Items that grant Fire Shield have had their descriptions updated to denote that Hot and Cold cancel each other out.

The Templar's Bastion and Epic Templar's Bastion are now made of Mithral.

Items acquired from scarab turn-ins in the Necropolis have had their minimum levels adjusted downwards.

Mesmerized enemies from spells such as fascinate and hypnotize will no longer teleport

The valid hit area for Greater Thaarak hounds has been adjusted to be more in line with the body size and shape of the monster.

Shaverath devils now hate half-elves and half-orcs along with all other player races.

Toven should be a lot more "with it" these days.

Nauseated enemies should no longer teleport.

Fixed a bug causing undead enemies to always fail their saves against healing spells. Undead enemies where always taking full damage from spells such as heal, now they will correctly try to make their save.

Quests & Adventures

Epic Difficulty

Players who have completed Epic quests prior to MoTU should be flagged as having completed Epic Elite in the Adventure Compendium, which gives the same favor as old Epic mode. The player should still receive a first time quest bonus for completing Epic Elite the first time, however.

All quests that offer Epic difficulty options are now accessible via a new tab in the quest panel called "Epic".

All quests that offer Epic content now feature it in multiple difficulties!

Party scaling now applies to Epic difficulties (with hard and elite receiving little or no scaling)

Epic Dungeon Tokens are natives of the world of Eberron, and will not appear in the chests of Forgotten Realms.

Necropolis

Tomb of the Tormented: Fixed an issue where rats wouldn't go to eat their food.

The Ruins of Gianthold

The dragons fought in Gianthold Tor will now reward more dragonscales on higher difficulties.

The artisans in Gianthold who craft Dragonscale Armor have refined their craft. New versions of the Blue, Black, and White Dragonscale items are now available here.

Dragonscale Armors from Gianthold have been increased in power to be more appropriate to their rarity and prestiege. Although their minimum level to equip remains at 14, they now may be useful for characters up to level 20.

Three Barrel Cove

Avast! The denizens of Three-Barrel Cove now be holdin unique treasure fer intrepid level 4 - 6 land lubbers to find. Track ye down eighteen new items in both the adventure area and from quest rewards.

General Questing Changes

Traps on casual difficulty will no longer behave as if "hard" difficulty had been selected.

In the quest journal for Attack on Stormreach, the player is now directed to find Yorrick Amanatu specifically in Lordsmarch Palace (instead of just ""Plaza"").

Removed a stuck spot in Sins of Attrition

An unbreakable jug in Whisperdoom's Lair can now be broken. Smash!

Hirelings no longer get stuck in some parts of the Butcher's Path.

Iron defenders have been removed from Schemes of the Enemy.

Fixed an issue where Epic fragments were not dropping in Offering of Blood

Debuffs no longer persist after leaving the Litany of the Dead.

Corrected a display bug with Crateos's death animation in the Snitch.

An unbreakable jug in Whisperdoom's Lair can now be broken. Smash!

Remodeled a door so monsters and players will not get stuck so much in Lordsmarch Plaza

In the Forgotten Realms, every third completion of a quest chain will provide a reward list with a 50% chance for each item that could have normally appeared in that list to appear. Completions which are not the third or a subsequent multiple of three have a 25% chance for those items to appear.

Newly obtained Rings of Elemental Essence from the Phiarlan Carnival quest series now have Corrosion.

Finishing out of "Servants of the Overlord" and "Spinner of Shadows" now takes you to the correct location.

Reincarnation

As of Update 14, all existing and new characters may speak with Kruz to perform a lesser reincarnation character respec for free, without using a Heart of Wood, one time. You may perform this free respec at any time of your choosing, and each of your characters may speak with Kruz one time to do so.

Several Spells will no longer disappear upon reincarnation.

Extra Pre-purchase items are no longer being re-granted upon reincarnation.

Reincarnating Wizards and Artificers are now allowed to pick spells while levelling up regardless of past class history.

Characters may perform a True Reincarnation so long as they are level 20, or higher, and have a True Heart of Wood.

Skills, Feats, & Abilities

Poison & Diseases

Changes have been made to the way that Poisons and Diseases behave in the game to be more inline with D&D rules:

All Poisons and Diseases are now classified as either natural, magical, or supernatural.

Diseases

Paladins are immune to natural, magical, and supernatural diseases through the granted feat "Divine Health"

Purity of Body grants immunity to all natural diseases, but not magical or supernatural ones.

Disease wards grant immunity to natural diseases, and an Enhancement bonus to saving throws against magical diseases. Additionally Disease Ward prevents the wearer from failing saving throws on a roll of a natural 1 (this renders the wearer immune to ability score damage from magical diseases with a DC of less than 7 + their Fortitude save).

Poisons

Monks with Diamond Body gain a +10 bonus to saving throws against magical poisons, and do not fail saving throws against them on a roll of a natural 1 (this renders you immune to ability score damage from magical poisons with a DC of less than 11 + your Fortitude save). You have Poison Resistance: 10 against poisons that deal hit point damage.

Proof against Poison grants immunity to natural poisons, and an Enhancement bonus to saving throws against magical poisons. Additionally Disease Ward prevents the wearer from failing saving throws on a roll of a natural 1 (this renders the wearer immune to ability score damage from magical diseases with a DC of less than 7 + their Fortitude save). Additionally you gain Poison Resistance 10 against poisons that deal hit point damage.

Warforged are naturally immune to sleep, energy drain, nausea, sickness, exhaustion, and paralysis effects except those which physically hold them in place. You are immune to ability score damage from natural poisons and natural diseases, but are vulnerable to those that specifically affect wood or metal. You gain a +10 Racial bonus to saving throws against magical poisons and magical diseases, and do not fail saving throws against them on a roll of a natural 1 (this renders you immune to ability score damage from magical poisons and magical diseases with a DC of less than 11 + your Fortitude save). You have Poison Resistance: 10 against poisons that deal hit point damage. If you transform into a different type of creature, you will lose these benefits until you return to your Warforged form.

Bonuses from multiple racial/class type resistances stack, so a Warforged Monk 11/Druid 9 would end up immune to natural poisons and diseases (including ones that specifically affect wood and metal, since those are covered by the Monk and Druid feats), would have Poison Resistance: 30, and would have a +20 bonus to saves against magical poisons and diseases (rendering them immune to ability score damage from magical poisons and diseases with a DC of 21 + Fortitude save or less). As expected, those that cease being living constructs through a transformation effect will lose these traits, gaining traits appropriate to their new creature type. (Warforged Monks will retain these constructs traits even if they acquire Perfect Self.)

The Neutralize Poison spell will grant immunity to all natural and magical poisons for 3 seconds per caster level. The Extend metamagic will apply to this aftereffect.

The Remove Disease spell (and Paladin ability) will grant immunity to natural and magical diseases for 6 seconds per caster level. The Extend metamagic will apply to this aftereffect if the spell is cast.

The Divine Cleansing enhancement will grant immunity to natural and magical diseases and poisons for 12 seconds per caster level.

The Panacea, Heal, and Mass Heal spells will not grant lingering protection, but will cure poisons and diseases as before.

SPECIAL NOTES ON MUMMY ROT: The grand-daddy of all diseases, Mummy Rot is a terrible fate, which previously was able to be worked around with immunity items (which didn't prevent the curse, but prevented the disease from applying ability score damage). Being exposed to Mummy Rot will no longer immediately apply the full curse - you'll have one minute to get a Remove Disease before it fully incubates and applies its supernatural curse and disease to you. The lingering effects listed above that provide immunity to magical diseases will also prevent this initial application of Mummy Rot.

Races & Creatures

Other Changes:

Other Changes

Damage amplification enhancements such as Ranger Devotion I or Force Manipulation III have all been converted to use the Spellpower system instead of flat percentages (that interacted in unusual manners with various metamagics and enhancements).

Barbarian Rage and several other active feats can now be activated while moving without being interrupted.

Fixed an issue that was preventing Improved Feint from triggering a weapon attack.

The Construct Essence feat now functions correctly if you log in while dead.

The Slippery Mind feat will no longer break Defensive rolls.

Shopping

Vendor buy/sell prices are now limited to 50% of the item's base price.

Spells

Spike Growth

Damage was increased from "1d4" to "1d4 per caster level", to a maximum of 10d4.

Cost reduced to 12 SP.

Description now properly states that a reflex save halves the damage.

Numerous low-level spell buffs with a duration of 1/minute per caster level have had their durations changed: they are still 1/minute per caster level, but they now have a minimum of 5 minutes. This includes the animal stat buffs (such as Cat's Grace), Jump, Bless, Expeditious Retreat, nightshield, Protection from Evil, Ram's might, Shield, and Tumble.

The music of Otto's Dancing Sphere has been made less "techno"-ish, and more appropriate for the time period.

Artificer spell Deadly Weapons now works on ranged weapons.

The Level 6 Artificer Spell, Deadly Weapons, has been updated to work as intended: It now adds +1 base weapon damage. (A weapon that deals 1d6 damage per hit will deal 2d6 damage per hit instead, while a weapon that deals 2d4 damage per hit will deal 4d4 damage instead. This affects the base dice associated with a weapon any time they are rolled.)

The Wail of the Banshee spell has been changed to: Wail of the Banshee SP Cost: 50 Cooldown: 60 seconds (50 for Sorcerers) You emit a terrible scream, creating a deadly area around yourself for 6 seconds. Every 2 seconds, two nearby enemies must make a fortitude save or die. On a successful fortitude save, the target takes 1 to 4 negative levels. You are free to perform other actions while Wail of the Banshee is active. D&D Dice: Slays multiple living enemies or deals 1d4 negative levels if they save.

Spells no longer interrupt on autorun.

The spell Displacement is now self-only.

The Heal spell is no longer flagged to accept the Heighten metamagic. While it can be used offensively against undead, that use is significantly rarer than using it to heal allies, and being flagged as heightenable was increasing spell point costs of the spell regardless of target.

Prismatic spray no longer turns earth elementals to stone.

Eladrin Ghaele summons should no longer have the possiblity of going teleport-crazy.

Fix a bug causing cone AOE spells to hit some targets twice.

Corrected the duration description on Hypnotism's tooltip.

UI

New

Many parts of the UI have been updated or refreshed to be more D&D-setting-neutral, rather than Eberron or Forgotten Realms specific.

It is now possible to see your Epic Destiny XP in addition to your normal character XP at the bottom of the screen. You can now toggle your experience bar to show either character level progress, Epic Destiny Progress, or both.

The game menu is now located in the lower left of the screen. Click the DDO dragon ampersand (&) to pull up the menu. You may shrink the menu to icon-only by clicking the eye symbol.

It is now possible to save your UI layout/options between different characters, accounts, computers, and monitor resolutions! As of Update 14, when you log in for the first time you will initially find all UI layouts back at their default positions and sizes. To create and save a custom layout:< >Arrange your UI to your preferred layout and options for that character

Save those settings locally by using “/ui layout save [filename]” in the chat window.

Replace "[filename]" with an easy to remember name for that layout.

If you don’t specify a filename, then your layout will be saved under, or loaded from, the name Default_<resolution>.layout. For example, if you are running in 1440x900 resolution, your UI layout file will be "Default_1440_900.layout."

You may save as many layouts as you like for any of your characters. Be sure to use different names so as not to overwrite an existing layout.

Your UI layout files save to your Dungeons & Dragons Online -> data -> ui -> layouts folder. You may copy your ui layout files from this folder into other computers if you like, though we recommend that you make a new layout if the monitor resolution between those computers differs.

Changes

The mail notification icon has been moved from the focus orb to the player vitals bar. The icon has also been updated to be a "letter" icon.

The cursor has been modified to be more contrasting and easier to see.

Your character's last public area location is now shown in character select screen.

The background of the Character selection screen will now change depending on whether your character last left off in Eberron or Forgotten Realms.

Class levels are now listed following a character's total level on the Character Selection screen

Several changes have been made to the basic game UI, such as hotbars and focus orb.

Buff/Debuff icons can be left or right justified. The default is now LEFT justified.

Platinum bank deposit window will no longer disappear in the right or lower side of the screen

An "Assist My Target" key is now available. This option will cause you to automatically switch to hard-targetting the enemy of your target.

When a bow/xbow is equipped, you will now see the proper attack bonus in the Inventory UI's detail pane when a character has an alternate ability mod feat, such as Zen Archery.

Escape Key closing for windows now closes all panel windows when pressed.

Negative effects are now shown their own row and with red borders.

The Kundarak crafting hall entrance now has a pretty focus orb image showing the crafting hall.

Updated the over-head icons for several public quest bestowers (particularly those associated with the Campaign system)

Class levels are now listed following a character's total level on the Character Selection screen

You will now get a floaty text notice when a buff wears off. This text may be turned off with an option in the UI Options menu.

Dialog boxes (confirmations, messages, etc.) will no longer disappear when dragged down and to the right.

Overhead damage text is now displaying properly again.

The Account Bank window can once again be freely resized.

Dragging items onto cosmetic armor button now equips them.

The crafting, barter, and deconstruction Uis should no longer grey-out the clear button erroneously.

The ingredients box should allow drag & dropping after a recipe completion.

Floating health bars on monsters will no longer be overwritten by the current target's health bar.

Other changes

The DDO game name and basic logo has been updated to be more friendly to multiple D&D universes. We're now "Dungeons & Dragons Online" with a new logo to match!

A new Forgotten Realms background will be shown in character selection screen for characters that logout in that campaign world.

House Cannith has done some remodeling on the Cannith & Kundarak Crafting Hall doors so that they no longer blind patrons with the light of a thousand burning Fireballs.

Brother Kew in the Rusty Nail has been brought back down to earth and is no longer levitating.

Game Tip #149 now lists the correct amount of XP bonus.

Corrected a memory leak issue

Optimized several game scripts and improved behavior between the server and client.

Fixed a crashing issue when moving between quests or teleporting.

Fixed a crashing issue that would occur when attempting to log out.

Short drops when hanging from ledges should no longer apply damage.

/death will no longer work on veteran status boats, guild ships or reincarnation boats.

Graphics

On the highest graphics settings, when facing the camera towards the sun, its rays will now beam down at you or peer through the trees with warm illuminating goodness.

On higher graphics settings wheat, reeds, grasses, and other ground frills will now react when an avatar passes through them.

New varieties of trees and grasses have arrived to DDO. These plants are native to the Forgotten Realms. The Druidic Gatekeepers ask that adventurers returning from the Realms not bring back plant cuttings so as not to disrupt the fragile Xen'drik jungle ecosystem with potentially invasive species of wild plants.

Ladders

Fixed an issue that caused climbing to fail when attempting to walk onto ladders from the bottom rung. Note that there could be some ladders that were not fixed in this systematic pass, and should be reported with quest names and /loc

Corrected an issue where characters who were swimming could not swim onto the first rungs of partially submerged ladder. Note that there could be some ladders that were not fixed in this systematic pass, and should be reported with quest names and /loc

Fixed a different issue with ladders that would cause the character to rubberband back onto the ladder when attempting to dismount it. Can't stress this enough: there could be some ladders that were not fixed in this systematic pass, and should be reported with quest names and /loc

Audio & Sound

An all new orchestral music score has been added to DDO!

Combat and Ambient sounds have been re-categorized into their own sound channels, adjustable from the Audio UI Options panel

Talbron the Warforged has a new voice.

Ambient noises no longer follow you from area to area.

Several Eberron quests that were missing their musical scores have been tuned up.

Dungeons & Dragons Online® interactive video game (c) 2017 Standing Stone Games LLC. All other elements (c) 2017 HASBRO, Inc. Standing Stone Games and the Standing Stone Games logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Standing Stone Games LLC. Dungeons & Dragons Online and Wizards of the Coast and their respective logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC and are used with permission. HASBRO and its logo are trademarks of HASBRO, Inc. and are used with permission.